Harvard Finishes 2009 Season at Penn and Princeton

Story Line
Harvard finishes the 2009 season on the road at Penn and Princeton
this weekend. The Crimson boasts an 11-12 overall record and a 7-5
in Ivy League play.

Scouting the Crimson
Harvard went the distance with the Yale Friday night, following in
the final set, 19-17. The next day, the Crimson swept Brown to
improve to 36-21 against the Bears.

Mikaelle Comrie leads the Crimson in kills per set with 2.91, while
Anne Carroll Ingersoll is a close second with 2.84 per set.
Ingersoll leads the team and the Ivy League in blocks with 1.14 per
set after tying a career-high nine against the Bulldogs. Sandra
Lynn Fryhofer has a team and league best .318 hitting percentage,
while Ingersoll’s .298 hitting percentage ranks sixth in the
league. She is one of three players to average .026 service aces as
well. Christine Wu and Taylor Docter are the other two. Lily
Durwood paces the team and is fourth in the league in assists with
9.76 per set, while Wu leads the team and is third in the Ivies in
digs with 5.06.

Scouting the Quakers
Penn clinched at least a share of the Ivy League title last
Saturday against Cornell. The Quakers enter the weekend with a 20-4
overall record and an 11-0 mark in the Ancient Eight.

Elizabeth Semmens paces the team in kills with 3.74 per set, while
Megan Tryon has set up the offense with 11.64 assists per set.
Madison Wojciechowski leads the team and the Ivy League in digs
with 5.37. Ashley Hawkins paces the Quakers in blocks with 0.84 per
set.

The Series: Yale holds a 34-19 lead in the all-time series and has
won nine straight contests. Harvard’s last victory over its
long time rival came on Oct. 22, 2004 at the Malkin Athletic
Center.

Scouting the Tigers
Princeton looks to hold on to its third-place position in the
league standings with a 7-4 conference record. The Tigers are 9-13
overall.

Sheena Donohue leads the team with 3.80 kills per set and 4.10 digs
per set. Michaela Venuti and Molly Bagshaw share the setting
duties, with 10.17 and 9.87, respectively. Venuti leads the team in
service aces as well with .35 per set. Elizabeth McStravick has a
team-best .60 blocks per set.

The Series: Princeton holds a 41-9 lead against the Crimson since
their first meeting in 1981. Harvard went the distance with the
Tigers in its last meeting, snapping a 12 match win streak, with
its 3-2 victory. The first at home since 1996.

Climbing the Ladder
Katherine Kocurek broke the Harvard program record for digs in a
career against Yale last Friday night. The new record stands a
1,394 digs and counting with two more matches left to play. Earlier
in the season, classmate Lily Durwood became the third Harvard
player to surpass the 3,000 mark in assists. She enters the weekend
with 3,307 hand outs, which stands third on Harvard’s
all-time list.

Crimson Capsule
Harvard has won at least 10 contests for the second year in a row
… The Crimson has seven conference wins for the first time
since 2004 … Last month, Harvard snapped Princeton’s
12 match win streak over the Crimson and Cornell’s nine-match
series win streak over the Crimson … Mikaelle Comrie has
recorded 56 kills in the last three Friday night matches, giving
the junior outside hitter 4.31 kills per set in those three matches
… Anne Carroll Ingersoll has a block in 19 of the 20 matches
she has played in … Christine Wu has posted double-digit
digs in 19 of the Crimson’s 23 contests … Lily Durwood
has 40 or more assists in eight match this fall.